Specific Goals for Principia Cybernetica

Principia Cybernetica has the following specific goals:

Collaboration:

For a group of researchers, perhaps not all
geographically close, to collaboratively develop a system of philosophy.
The task of growing such a system should be beyond the grasp of any one
individual. In order to achieve progress, openness, and the participation
of the scholarly community, balance in the content of the system must be
reflected by a balance of opinions of its authors and between editorial
control and public participation.

Constructivity:

To produce a system of philosophy that can develop
dynamically over time, with continuing refinement and expansion, while
retaining a record of its history. Such a system must be "grown"--it
will begin small, and become larger. But change in the philosophy must not
only be in its growth, but also in revision, the correction of error, and
incorporation of new opinions and participants. Thus it must be possible
for parts of the system to be changed and deleted on an ongoing basis.

Active:

The content of the project should not just be a passive
reflection what the authors construct, but be a an model able to generate
its own activity, and to act on itself and its organization. The structure
of the system should not just represent the principles being
developed, but also manifest them in its actions.

Semantic Representations and Analysis:

For the system of philosophy
to fully reflect and incorporate the multiple semantic relations inherent
among the terms being explicated, and to unify and synthesize
notations and the senses of terms as used in different disciplines. The
semantic relations among the terms and concepts are complex and intricate.
In this way, knowledge can be represented in its breadth, depth, and other
orderings as conceived by the readers and authors. The coherence of a
system of thought is aided by the unification and synthesis of terminology.
Much of the development of the system will be done through the explication
of concepts and the multiple senses of terms in the context of their
history in the literature.

Consensus:

To support the process of argument and dialogue among
experts toward the development of consensually held views among
a number of researchers, while preserving their individual views.

Multiple Representational Forms:

To support mathematical notation
and the easy movement among natural language, formal language, and
mathematics, and to support bibliographical and historical reference.
There are many different forms of linguistic expression aside from natural
language which are very useful for philosophical work. These include graph
notation (nodes and arcs), set notation, predicate logic, mathematical
notation, and other forms of lists, tables, and diagrams.

Flexibility:

To allow researchers to develop or read the
philosophical system in various orders and in various degrees of depth or
specificity. It must be possible for readers to have access to all of the
orderings and dimensions of this large multi-dimensional semantic system,
and to travel freely along and among them.

Publication:

To support the traditional publication of different
stages of parts or the whole of the philosophical system and of various
special purpose documents, including journal articles, books,
dictionaries, encyclopedias, texts on a subject, reference pages, essays,
dialogues on a subject, or "streams of consciousness".

Multi-Dimensionality:

To allow the representation and utilization
of knowledge in its breadth, depth, and any other arbitrary orderings.